Long live small business owners. Long live homemade soup.

I’ve always known that soup was good food, but who knew it could also make me feel patriotic?

Monday was a glorious sunny day (remember that?). The balmy weather inspired a lunchtime stroll over to Infinite Soups on Tacoma Avenue. Everything about this spot is just so right. I had to wait in line for a while, but that was OK with me. A happy-go-lucky group of students was studying the handwritten menu and chatting with Todd DeShazo, soup chef and co-owner. One of the students gave me a friendly smile that felt as warm as the sunshine streaming through the front window. (The anticipation of homemade soup makes people smile, it seems.)

[More after the jump.]

As I waited to order, I flipped through the stacks of records that line the floor opposite the front counter. Supertramp’s Breakfast in America, Joe Cocker’s I Can Stand A Little Rain, K-Tel’s Mind Bender (greatest hits from the ‘70s)—basically everything I had in my collection in high school. I couldn’t identify the tune on rotation, but I was digging the hiss and pop of the vinyl.

The friendly students cleared out and I got a better look at the menu. My options included chipotle chicken noodle, Caribbean curried vegetable, potato Gorgonzola and creamy tomato basil. Tough choice. Broccoli cheddar was sold out, so I went with the tomato.

Since there are no seats, I went outside to devour my soup. Yum. Big chunks of fresh tomatoes, loads of cream and a nice peppery bite all added up to an out- of-this-world gourmet treat. It took only three spoonfuls before I was meditating on the life-affirming powers of soup and the way that great small businesses just make the world a better place.

A few more slurps and my subconscious conjured the words of Thomas Jefferson who championed the idea of a gradation of republics. “The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions he is competent to,” wrote Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell in 1816 from Monticello. Now granted, Jefferson’s vision wasn’t related to small business, it pertained to his concept of wards.

Jefferson envisioned that wards would be six-miles square and that each ward would be a small republic unto itself, allowing every man (sorry ladies!) to be an acting member of the common government. Let the Federal government handle the big stuff, thought Jefferson. Leave other matters to the states (and the wards). The more soup I ate, the more ward-like visions of governance filled my mind. OK. So Jefferson's idea didn't pan out. There are no wards in the United States. But, we do have cities, and within them communities and plenty of opportunities to take part in the dialogue. Suddenly, I was inspired to lift my voice and contribute to the conversation in Tacoma.

What in the world was in this soup? I felt like belting out America The Beautiful.

When I asked DeShazo how he got started in the soup business, he told me how he and his wife, Wendy Clapp, used to manage the café at the Tacoma News Tribune. “We noticed how the soup always sold out and it got us thinking,” he said. DeShazo and Clapp, along with Clapp’s daughter, Laura Clapp-Adams, started selling soup at the Tacoma Farmers Market. Then they opened the shop on Tacoma Avenue in 2007. Next came a location (with seating) inside Sanford & Sons. This entrepreneur’s story, and his enthusiasm for making soup, was like a great big shot of tomato-infused optimism.

When I downloaded my photos I had to laugh. Do you think DeShazo’s T-shirt had something to do with my mental wanderings? I swear that I didn’t “see” the flag and the eagle until I downloaded my images. I think that's really funny. Long live America. Long live small business owners. Long live soup. I'm going to sew a flag on my jean jacket, right next to my embroidered peace sign. And read more Jefferson. And keep supporting small businesses like Infinite Soups.